Opinion On Why Page Rank Is Not Filtering Through

[flanok]

Hi All,
I have a blog using wordpress, which is a PR 4 for a while now.

The blog is an extention to a website about 4 years old.

But for some reason after a few PR updates, no PR has filtered through to the blog pages, and in fact most if not all are a grey bar.
All the posts are hand written, what I would call relevant to the subject.

So I am looking for a fresh pair of eyes of why no PR has filtered through.

The url of the blog is Breakdown Cover Blog (http://www.breakdown-cover.net/blog/)

Fo some reason this post is converting it to anchor text automatically, so you will have to visit the blog to see the url

Looking for a few opinions

Thanks

Mark

[privatefleet]

Hi Mark,

I've noticed the same thing with my site recently - Private Fleet - New Car Broker Fleet Discounts new cars buying service motor dealer novated leases australia hybrid : Private Fleet : (http://www.privatefleet.com.au) The home page is PR5 and I've just written a heap of new pages (car reviews), all of which are have a grey bar too.

However these pages are indexed and are showing up in the SERPs so I'm not too concerned. Looks like yours are indexed too.

I wondered whether it was a precursor to Google giving up on TB PR...

Anyone else noticed this?

Cheers

Dave

[flanok]

Hi Dave,

I think I can help you in why your PR is not filtering through.

You do not have a .htaccess file in place to stop duplicate content.

In your case you have

Private Fleet - New Car Broker Fleet Discounts new cars buying service motor dealer novated leases australia hybrid : Private Fleet : (http://privatefleet.com.au/)

Private Fleet - New Car Broker Fleet Discounts new cars buying service motor dealer novated leases australia hybrid : Private Fleet : (http://www.privatefleet.com.au/)

and

Private Fleet - New Car Broker Fleet Discounts new cars buying service motor dealer novated leases australia hybrid : Private Fleet : (http://www.privatefleet.com.au/index.php)

All versions of the same page showing a PR of 5.

That tells me you have links to all 3 versions of the same home page and Google has found all 3.

Google sees this a duplicate content and often will not pass any of its PR though the site.
Also, I bet you do better in rankings in MSN and Yahoo than Google.

The PR you do have within internal pages of your site, I would bet is from other external links and not transfered from your homepage.

What you have to do is a rewrite within a, htaccess file. Search for this throughout the diffrerent forums, so that there is only one version of your home page. this will remove the duplicate content filter so it can find the internal pages.

Google has also removed its suplimental tags now, so just because a page is listed, does not mean it has any great value, unless it has a white bar or PR.

I do have a rewite for my site, which when put in place, took my site from not being listed in the top 1000 to the second page. It did take 6 weeks for Google to correct itself though.

I am now beginning to think, that my blog has the same issue.
I have a .htaccess file script for my html pages, but not for my .php blog pages.

I am looking into this now


Mark

[crankydave]

flanok...

The site has 1100+ pages in the SI which includes most/all of your blog pages. Pages in the SI do not display toolbar PR.

Dave

[flanok]

flanok...

The site has 1100+ pages in the SI which includes most/all of your blog pages. Pages in the SI do not display toolbar PR.

Dave

When you say SI, do you mean Suplimental Index?

How do you search the SI, now that the suplimental tags have been removed?

I think I have figued out the main issue.

My .htaacess file is ok for html pages, but now I have discovered that I have a blog/index.php and a blog/ page, both with PR 4 and is a duplicate issue.

No redirect for non index and index php pages is within my .htaccess file.

That would prevent all other php pages being listed.

I also have another info/ and info/index.php folder with the same issue.

I have added redirects today, so hopefully in 4 to 6 weeks, i will see php pages comming out of the SI.

Thanks

Mark

[crankydave]

When you say SI, do you mean Suplimental Index?

How do you search the SI, now that the suplimental tags have been removed?

Mark

Yes

site:www.yoursite.com/&

I'm very intersted to see if Google removes this means to "see" the pages in the SI. Will speak volumes if they do AFAIC.

Dave

[incrediblehelp]

How about getting IBLs links to your pages. That is a big part of the issue.

[privatefleet]

Thanks Mark

That would be great if it were that simple a fix. However I did already do something in Google Sitemaps to specify that the URL with the "www" should be the homepage rather than without. Didn't know there was nothing you could do about the /index URL though so will see what I can do.

You are right, I do have a lot of deeplinks so this could explain PR on internal pages. And yes I do rank better on Yahoo & MSN.

Thanks again & I hope your fix sorts your site too

Cheers

Dave

[flanok]

My understanding of the google sitemap tool, is how it shows your URL within it's results, not how it spyders your website or records its findings.

As for the .htaccess file, I also avoided using one for months and thought I was caught up in a very long sandbox.

I added a .htaccess file to 6 of my websites at the same time. (coped the same script from what I got of webproworld to all 6 sites, just changing the url of course) and within 6 weeks all 6 sites jumped massivley into Google index.

As I said my main site went to secoond page for a very competative term.

I knew without doubt, this had been my issue for months, maybe even the previous year. At that point I was number one on MSN and Yahoo and not even in the top 1000 on Google.

Whenever I start a new html site, I now put this file in straight away.


Mark

[espmartin]

As for the .htaccess file, I also avoided using one for months and thought I was caught up in a very long sandbox...I added a .htaccess file to 6 of my websites at the same time. (coped the same script from what I got of webproworld to all 6 sites, just changing the url of course) and within 6 weeks all 6 sites jumped massivley into Google index...Whenever I start a new html site, I now put this file in straight away.

Mark
Question. .htaccess just contains rules for apache web server., so what does that have to do with google crawl/SERPs?

If someone has their site on IIS, there is no .htaccess - so what's up with that?

[spiceboy]

Its not true that pages in the SI do not have page rank, here's one:

Tinned Indian Karela Bitter Gourd Vegetables (http://www.natco-online.com/acatalog/info_C7040.html)

heres another

Whole White Peppercorns (http://www.natco-online.com/acatalog/info_T8500.html)

and another!

Ground Turmeric Powder (http://www.natco-online.com/acatalog/info_T9800.html)

Its true, most of my supplemental pages are greyed - but not all...

[bj]

You do not link directly to blog posts in your sidebar. Add a "recent articles" block of navigation. Include enough so that there is at least a month's worth of titles always showing there.

Though it's a bit late for this, when you set up a WP blog, it's best to use the permalink structure /%category%/%postname% and you haven't used any good permalink structure at all, it's stock out of the box.

Go into admin/options/writing and scroll to the bottom of the page. How many urls are listed in the "update services" box? If there's just one, you are missing out on a lot of inbound links.

Have you claimed your blog at Technorati?

Are you signed up with mybloglog.com?

Have you submitted your blog to the blog directories?

[crankydave]

Its not true that pages in the SI do not have page rank, here's one:

Tinned Indian Karela Bitter Gourd Vegetables (http://www.natco-online.com/acatalog/info_C7040.html)

heres another

Whole White Peppercorns (http://www.natco-online.com/acatalog/info_T8500.html)

and another!

Ground Turmeric Powder (http://www.natco-online.com/acatalog/info_T9800.html)

Its true, most of my supplemental pages are greyed - but not all...

To the best of my knowledge, yes it is true, when it comes to the toolbar.

It depends upon what index a page is in for the cut off date when the PR export takes place.

If a page is in the RI when the PR export snapshot takes place, it will continue to show toolbar PR until the next export even if has been since placed in the SI.

If those pages you listed remain in the SI when the next toolbar PR export takes place, they will not show any PR on the toolbar.

Same is true for pages that leave the SI in between toolbar PR exports. They will not show any toolbar PR, despite being in the RI, until the next export.

In the examples you linked to, my best guess is that they were in the RI prior to the last toolbar PR update. Now thery're not.

Just another of the myriad of reasons to ignore what you "see in green".

Dave

[SemAdvance]

Question. .htaccess just contains rules for apache web server., so what does that have to do with google crawl/SERPs?

If someone has their site on IIS, there is no .htaccess - so what's up with that?

It has a lot to do with Google

If somebody links to your sites in the manners below, and your site does not have a 301 redirect or canonical URL rewrite in .htaccess then Google sees the site as duplicates of itself and this will also degrade your pages PageRank.

http://www.youcoolwebsite.com

www.yourcoolwebsite.com

http://yourcoolwebsite.com

Next if using windows you would use ISAPI rewrite to force all PR to the proper absolute URL

Additionally you can use the Preferred Domain selection at Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Central (http://www.google.com/webmasters/)

Hope it helps and answers your questions.

Not meaning to go off topic......

[espmartin]

K, I do both (Web Tools and redirect to NON-www in .htaccess) - but never though of the
repercussions as you've stated regarding dup. content.

[flanok]

Question. .htaccess just contains rules for apache web server., so what does that have to do with google crawl/SERPs?

If someone has their site on IIS, there is no .htaccess - so what's up with that?

My description of what I was saying was probably poor.

I was trying to describe why to add rewrites to your .htaccess, to ensure there is just one version of your home page.

Mark

[SemAdvance]

K, I do both (Web Tools and redirect to NON-www in .htaccess) - but never though of the
repercussions as you've stated regarding dup. content.

No problem glad I could help.

Google is very bright and has a great deal of strengths, but they have flaws & weakness too. Knowing how and which to use allows success.

Remeber Google is an algoritmic search engine which means they work on the law of averages, and use filters to defend against exploits.

As an algorithmic program it looks for abberations and spikes to apply those filters.

In doing so it seems to me that a filter is applied where the title is repeated X amount it indicates duplicate content and earns a filter to the ranking and PR.

There are of course exceptions to the rule as well. Google understands sites individual needs as well.

Most ecommerce cms sites use a site wide header file and as such the filter is likely removed within these appropriate categories.

Also most sites contrary to todays development standards, do not belong in a rigid CMS especially if SEO is a thought in the future.